NEW YORK CITY GOVERNMENT

Mayor Bloomberg Opens New Consolidated Data Center to House Technology Infrastructure of More Than 40 City Agencies
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor for Operations Stephen Goldsmith andDepartment of Information Technology and TelecommunicationsCommissioner Carole Post opened New York City’s new state-of-the-art data center in Downtown Brooklyn. The 18,000 square-foot facility will allow the City to centralize the technology infrastructure of 19 agencies over the next year and that of more than 40 agencies over the next five years, saving roughly $100 million in that period alone. For more information, click here.

Mayor Bloomberg Launches “NYC Women: Make It Here, Make It Happen” as Part of Women’s History Month Celebration
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg launched “NYC Women: Make it Here, Make it Happen” a video series produced by the City’s Commission on Women’s Issues in collaboration with NYC Media, the official network of the City of New York, to shine the spotlight on extraordinary women of New York City. The series, which will air on NYC life (Channel 25) during Women’s History Month, will feature 31 stories of triumph in one-minute videos each day in the month of March. For more information, click here.

Mayor Bloomberg Appoints Freida D. Foster to the Panel for Educational Policy
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg appointed Freida D. Foster to the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP). She replaces Panel Member Philip Berry who resigned from the Panel yesterday. Ms. Foster is a Commissioner on the New York State Worker’s Compensation Board. Prior to joining the New York State Worker’s Compensation Board, she was a manager at Burston-Marsteller, where she participated in developing the firm’s multi-cultural practice. For more information, click here.

Mayor Bloomberg Kicks Off Week of New York City Arts Events
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, NYC & Company CEO George Fertitta, Armory Show Founder and Vice President Paul Morris and President of the Art Dealers Association of America Lucy Mitchell-Innes kicked off a week of arts-related activities and events taking place in New York City from March 2 to March 7. Shows and art fairs throughout the five boroughs, including The Armory Show and The Art Show, are expected to draw more than 60,000 attendees and generate more than $40 million in economic activity in New York City. Other art shows and fairs taking place include: Volta NY, Pulse, Scope New York, Verge, Red Dot, Moving Image, Independent and Fountain. For more information, click here.

Mayor Bloomberg Announces Three New Steps to Make It Easier for Immigrant-Owned Business to Start and Grow in New York City
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced three new steps to make it easier for immigrant-owned businesses to start and grow in New York City: a business plan competition for innovative strategies to provide assistance to immigrant entrepreneurs; new, free NYC Business Solution courses in Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and Russian; and a business expo to showcase locally-based immigrant food manufacturing businesses and link them to consumers nationwide. For more information, click here.

Council Votes on Pregnancy Services Centers
At this week’s Stated Council meeting, members of the City Council voted to strengthen protections for women seeking reproductive healthcare in New York City. The goal of Intro-371-A is to ensure that women are fully informed about which pregnancy-related services are offered at a given facility and by whom the services are provided. The Council also vote on a housing bill that will further penalize bad landlords who don’t adequately provide heat to tenants. For more information, click here.

Mayor Bloomberg, New York Knicks’ Amar’e Stoudemire and Nike Dedicate New Basketball Court at the Taylor-Wythe Community Center in Brooklyn
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, New York Knicks’ Forward Amar’e Stoudemire and Nike North America East General Manager Daryl Jones joined children from the El Puente afterschool program to dedicate a new basketball court at the Taylor-Wythe Community Center in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The court was originally used at Radio City Music Hall during last year’s inaugural World Basketball Festival – a four-day celebration sponsored by Nike and USA Basketball. For more information, click here.

NEW YORK STATE GOVERNMENT

Governor Cuomo Signs Bill to Ensure Orderly Administration of Village Elections
Governor Cuomo has signed into law a measure that will allow villages that administer their own village elections to use lever voting machines, rather than the new optical scan voting systems, until the end of 2012. This law was needed to ensure that these villages can transition to the new voting systems in a fair and orderly manner. For more information, click here.

Governor Cuomo Announces Bill Expediting Plans to Implement Objective Performance-Based Criteria for Teacher Evaluation
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that he will be submitting a program bill that would expedite and expand ongoing plans to implement a statewide, objective teacher evaluation system, based on both performance and seniority, for school districts to use when making employment decisions. By today’s actions, both the State Senate and the Assembly have acknowledged that the state must move forward on improving performance in the classroom as well as improving teacher evaluations. For more information, click here.

Governor Cuomo Accepts Preliminary Report on Mandate Relief
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo accepted a preliminary report on ways to curb the proliferation of unfunded and underfunded mandates. The Mandate Relief Redesign Team, consisting of private and public sector individuals and formed in January via Executive Order, is reviewing unfunded and underfunded mandates imposed by New York state government on school districts, local governments, and other local taxing districts. Such mandates include legal requirements that a local district provide a program, project, or activity on behalf of the state. For more information, click here.

Governor Cuomo Announces Appointments and Nominations

Name

Title

Current Position

Joseph M. Bress

Governor’s Labor Negotiating Team

Vice President, Amtrak

Todd R. Snyder

Governor’s Labor Negotiation Team

Senior Managing Director, Rothschild, Inc.

Governor Cuomo Announces 30-Day Amendments that Continue the Historic Redesign of the New York State Government as well as the State Budget Process
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced 30-day amendments that continue historic efforts to redesign New York state government as well as the budget process to protect New York state taxpayers from unsustainable spending growth and to improve the delivery of state services. These amendments to his executive budget proposal provide two-year appropriations in Medicaid and School Aid spending, done for the first time to control spending. Growth in these programs will be tied to medical inflation and personal income growth, thus anchoring future spending to a rational framework while providing predictability to school districts, medical providers and taxpayers. The amendments will allow for growth in education spending in 2012-13 for the first time since 2009-10, but the increases in school aid will be affordable and will not add to the out-year gaps projected with the Executive Budget. The amendments also codify the recommendations created by the Medicaid Redesign Team. For more information, click here.

CURRENT RFPS

The following Request for Proposals have been recently issued by City and State government

Fasttrac Program Services (due March 7, 2011) – NYC Department of Small Business Services is seeking appropriately qualified vendors to directly manage the day to day aspects of the FastTrac program: marketing and outreach, recruitment and management of Facilitators and Business Coaches, recruitment and management of guest speakers, classroom space, participant registration, budget, class logistics, reporting and evaluating program performance, alumni communication and networking, and coordination with NYC Business Solutions. For more information, click here.

Brooklyn Bridge Park Bicycle Concession (due March 7, 2011) – Brooklyn Bridge Park is soliciting proposals for a concessionaire to operate a bicycle rental business in the park starting this spring. Click here for more information.

Applied Sciences, Consultant Services (due March 11, 2011) – The New York City Economic Development Corporation is offering a unique opportunity to develop a premier science and research facility and campus in the City of New York (“the City”). In a City with more than 626,000 students and 39 percent of global market capitalization, the City is a business and academic capital, both nationally and internationally. For more information, click here.

Sale of Food from Pushcarts, Processing Carts, Nut Carts, Ice Cream Carts and Mobile Trucks (due March 14, 2011) – Request for Proposals for the sale of specialty food from Mobile Food Units at various locations Citywide. For more information, click here.

Adult Literacy Services Young Adult Literacy Services (due March 21, 2011) – DYCD currently supports a wide spectrum of literacy programs for adults, adolescents, and families. Through this RFP DYCD seeks appropriately qualified providers of literacy services for adults living in New York City (City). DYCD will fund programs that offer Adult Basic Education (ABE), General Educational Development (GED) Tests preparation, English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), and Basic Education in the Native Language (BENL) instructional services. In collaboration with the Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) DYCD also seeks providers that will offer pre-GED instruction to young adults ages 16-24 as well as a technical assistance (TA) vendor to support those programs. For more information, click here.

City Council Expense Funding (due March 24, 2011) – FY 2012 expense application is now available. Click here for more information.

Charleston Retail Sites (due March 31, 2011) – New York City Economic Development Corporation (“NYCEDC”) is seeking proposals to acquire and develop of two undeveloped land parcels, each approximately 10 acres, located in Charleston section of Staten Island (the “Sites”). Proposed programs for the Sites should be predominantly for retail uses in response to the thriving regional and local market but may include uses complementary to retail. For more information, click here.

Brooklyn Incubator RFP (due April 8, 2011) – NYCEDC is seeking proposals from qualified individuals, companies or organizations to develop, operate and maintain an incubator space (the “Incubator”) within either the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brownsville, East New York, or Crown Heights or, within a portion of the Moore Street Market’s basement level (the “Site”). For information on this project, click here.

Housing and Shelter for Persons with AIDS (extended: due April 30, 2011) – For more information, click here.

Arlington Yard RFEI (due May 11, 2011) – seeking expressions of interest for the use of all or any portion of an approximately 9-acre parcel of land located within the Arlington Railyard in Staten Island, NY. The Site is zoned for rail freight and industrial uses, offers exceptional access to local and continental rail and road networks, and sits immediately across from Howland Hook Marine Terminal, a major deep water container port. For more information, click here.

121 West 125th Street Retail Space for Lease(due July 29, 2011) – New York City Economic Development Corporation (“NYCEDC”) is seeking to lease retail spaces ranging from 800 square feet to 4,000 square feet for retail uses at 121 West 125th Street located in Manhattan. NYCEDC wishes to enter into leases with companies to provide services to residents in the neighborhood and to the neighboring communities. For more information, click here.

Bush Terminal Ground-Up Development (due December 29, 2011) – New York City Economic Development Corporation (“NYCEDC”) seeks proposals for the lease of an approximately 130,000 square foot parcel of land located on Block 725, part of Lot 1, in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn (the “Site”). The Site is part of the Bush Terminal Campus and the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Business Zone. For more information, click here.

Urbancanvas (due October 14, 2012) – The urbancanvas Design Competition was a challenge to professional artists and designers to create printed designs for temporary protective structures at construction sites to beautify New York City’s streetscape. The competition sought complementary proposals for designs to enliven different types of temporary protective structures located on City-owned property: construction fences, sidewalk sheds, supported scaffolds and cocoon systems. For more information, click here.

NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL STATED MEETING AGENDA

On March 2, the Council held a stated meeting where they passed and introduced new legislation and land use items. The agenda can be found here.